HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The production values were
understandably low in the sketch comedy routines a then-13-year-old Thaddeus
Blake and his friends would make using VHS camcorders.

"We had no editing," Blake, now 32 and co-founder of Huntsville's
Homegrown Comedy Show, recalls. "If we needed to change scenes it was hit the
Stop Record button, move things around and hit the Record button again. One of
the funniest things we did was try to parody the 'Rocky' series. I actually
played Mickey the trainer and had a little hoodie. For the audio, we'd put 'Eye
of the Tiger' on a boombox and had someone run with it behind us so the
old VHS camera could pick it up. The tapes are definitely goofy and incriminating."

"I think the biggest evolution has been getting that
presence in Huntsville of people knowing there's a reoccurring show for local
comedians," Blake says of Homegrown. "When it started off, we kind of just pulled from our
friend base and word-of-mouth."

On a recent afternoon, Blake is driving his Toyota Tundra to
his telecommunications technical coordinator job. "I actually work in evenings," he says. "So I spend most of my days sleeping-in. If a
heckler ever tells me to keep my day job, I say, 'I wish I could get paid to sleep-in. That would be fantastic.'"

2211

"One of the things I really like about the Flying Monkey is
how they really embrace any kind of local arts or performance," Blake says of
the venue, located at 2211 Seminole Dr., which has hosted all five previous
Homegrowns. "One of the things a lot of the comedians who perform for us have
told me is that what they've done open-mics and stuff, but what they consider
as their first gig is performing at the Flying Monkey."

13

The first Homegrown Comedy Show went down July 13, 2012. The
bill for the anniversary show includes Guy Frizzell, who always appeared at the
very first one. The Aug. 16 gig will also feature the Homegrown debut of Greg Stargell, Shane Justice, Duell Aldridge,
Terra Jeffrey and Tollie Jones.

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Two years ago, Blake says it was difficult to find even an open-mic
in Huntsville to do stand-up comedy at. "Now we've got like three open-mics, a
couple regular performance shows - Comedy Mayhem, Epic Comedy Hour and
Homegrown," he says. "The thing about Homegrown was to keep it really focused local
on the Huntsville/Madison area. For this show, we've got Tollie Jones coming up
from Birmingham, but the majority of it is local. We always try to always keep
it 50 percent or more of local comedians."

1

After his fellow Homegrown co-founder Tom Hand moved to
Seattle in February, carrying on the show basically was all up to Blake. "It
was definitely something I didn't want to be all me, and I wanted to collaborate
with people. So that's when I asked Brandon (Ijames), who ended up coming to
some of the first open-mics I put together with Jonathan Craig, to help me
co-host the show. And Jonathan will
co-host the (Homegrown Comedy Show) coming up in September."